A21m Freezing Issues Unlike Others I've Read About Here...

[j_mcc99]

Hi all,

I have a A21M laptop (700MHz PIII) and a cleanly wiped hdd. When installing WinXP I get to the "Installing Device Drivers" portion and then at the same point each and every time it locks up. I have also tried installing Ubuntu and it locks up very quickly as soon as it begins to load the kernel.

I've done some tests to see what it might be and I'm hoping some of you have some suggestions (they're ALL welcome!!

-I did a low level format (after discovering many bad sectors) on the hdd. This worked fine and afterwards no bad sectors were found. Freeze occured at the same point however.

-I swapped in another hdd, formatted it (NTSC) and tried the install once again. Same thing once again.

-I did a comprehensive memory test using Ubuntu's built in MEMTEST application. I let this run for about 12 hours without coming up with a single error.

Well... that's it. From reading all the posts about "crappy 'A' series mobo's I'm guessing that people will say that's the problem. If you can be more detailed as to what the particular mobo problem may be please say so.

Thank you all very much in advance!!

-j_mcc99

[aaron158]

Hi all,

-I swapped in another hdd, formatted it (NTSC) and tried the install once again. Same thing once again.

i'm guessing by that u ment ntsf as ntsc is a format tvs in north amercia use.

[Kendas]

Hi all,

-I swapped in another hdd, formatted it (NTSC) and tried the install once again. Same thing once again.

i'm guessing by that u ment ntsf as ntsc is a format tvs in north amercia use.

Well.... More like "NTFS"

[j_mcc99]

Ok, ok.. you got me. I was just testing you all. You all pass with flying colors. Now back to the question.... ??

[jfsmith]

I thought someone more familiar with the A21M would jump in -- unfortunately, I'm not. It would appear you have a hardware problem causing the hang when Setup tries to install the driver. If you're lucky, it might be a peripheral device. Try disabling any non-essential devices in the BIOS before you start the OS installation -- i.e. serial/parallel ports, USB, etc. to see if you can narrow down the problem.

[j_mcc99]

Using the PC Doctor diagnostic program provided by IBM (or Lenovo?) I am able to lock the machine up time and time again. Every test runs flawlessly.... except 2:

-Intel Modem Loopback /DTMF (Dial Tone Multifrequency)
-Intel Modem Register

I don't suppose it's possible to disable the model from within the bios so the os doesn't even bother installing device drivers for the seemingly non-existant device?

[makaveli559m]

If u reformat the hard into NTFS with any Linux distro that is why u cant install XP on it. U need to reformat it using Windows.

[j_mcc99]

Linux was never installed on the machine. I mentioned earlier that it froze up very quickly before the kernal could be loaded and the installation to take place. Sorry if I did not make that clear.

Tonight I will troubleshoot with the mini-PCI LAN/Modem card. I'm hoping this piece of hardware is responsible for the problems encountered because I had planned on replacing it with a WLAN card anyways.

[ctcheung]

Check the mini-pci card whether it is the 3Com combo card. Take it out and try again. The 3Com combo card driver in the MS WinXP doesn't compatible with the card. If so, download the 3Com combo card driver from IBM/Lenovo website and install it. It is the modem driver that causes the problem. Boot the system in safe mode and install the driver. Then reboot again.

[j_mcc99]

Check the mini-pci card whether it is the 3Com combo card. Take it out and try again. The 3Com combo card driver in the MS WinXP doesn't compatible with the card. If so, download the 3Com combo card driver from IBM/Lenovo website and install it. It is the modem driver that causes the problem. Boot the system in safe mode and install the driver. Then reboot again.

It is the 3Com combo card. Thanks for the advice, I'll be giving that a try as soon as I get home from work!

I'm going to start a thread about what internal mini-pci wlan cards will work for the a21m. Ideally I would like to install a good antenae buuuuutt in the interest of saving a few bucks... one of those x-jack pcmcia cards would be awfully simple.

If anybody has any suggestions on viable mini-pci or pcmcia solutions for the a21m I would be very appreciative to hear them.

[jhansman]

Just to keep this thread alive, my A21m has just started hitting a BDOS, usually with IRQ and page fault errors. It won't even do a full format of the HD (new, 30GB) without eventually hitting a BSOS. I did manage to do a quick format during a reinstall of XP Pro, but during the file copying segment of setup it croaked again. I have not idea what to do here. I'll try disabling every non-essential hardware component and re-install and report back, but right now my trusty A21m is a doorstop.

[j_mcc99]

Just to keep this thread alive, my A21m has just started hitting a BDOS, usually with IRQ and page fault errors. It won't even do a full format of the HD (new, 30GB) without eventually hitting a BSOS. I did manage to do a quick format during a reinstall of XP Pro, but during the file copying segment of setup it croaked again. I have not idea what to do here. I'll try disabling every non-essential hardware component and re-install and report back, but right now my trusty A21m is a doorstop.

Just a suggestion... but if you're having the same problem as me... remove your mini-pci lan/modem combo card. ALL my problems were fixed when I yanked that card. I may never put it back in.

[jhansman]

Thanks for the tip, but I pulled that part and still no joy; XP still choked during setup. I posted in another thread that when I ran MemTest, tons of errors came up, so I'm hoping the new RAM I have enroute will bring this machine back to life.

[madmaven]

This a21 m has been very troublesome. In this recent bout of problems, I swapped out the memory because the machine would not boot. I was getting 4 beeps and went to the beep code and it said mobo or video. but with 2 new memory sticks it rebooted many times with no problem. a day or 2 later while on the net it crashed rebooted and said the sytem 32 file was missing and could not load, then I turned it of and later it rebooted and told me ist that it had recovered the file that the registry hive had problems, were recovered successfully.
I ran scandisk/r and tried to defrag but said it was not needed. then crashed again and rebooted and stated I have recovered form a serious error I sent the report and it said the Crystal audio WDM had bad software.
I updated the driver through windows on line and it crashed again after one or 2 more reboots.
On a later reboot from another crash gave same error from microsoft about the crystal audio. I have taken the battery out and it doesnt seem to matter -will still freeze or spontaneous reboot. I ran a whole DVD last night successfully put on a game and left the room, came back 5 min later and then it crashed again and spont. rebooted and froze on the windows XP login screen. I took the lan.modem combo card out this am and it is still up and running but who knows?? the combo card is a xircom. is this a compatable card? It will freeze or reboot cold on first boot or warm after running a while.
I tried to access the link from microsoft for the hardware maintence manual and it is down. I tryed last night and this am. I do have adobe so thats ain't it. I hate this machine If anyone has a working link or can send the HMManual, that would be great.
I guess if I can see the diagrams I can remove the chip and put some heat disapating stuff on it and reseat it if I can find it.
I think if the combo card doesnt stop the madness I will disable the sound ( Crystqal WMD)and see if that helps before disassembling the beast.
Thanks for any suggestions or the HMM working link and any ideas about which modem/lan cards work in this IBM
Leslie O
madmaven
IBMG40
P4 3.0ghz
40
2 gig ram (this is a nice machine!)
t20 DOA(NEEDS NEW PPROM) dying a21m
SONY VAIO PCGF590 - 750mhz, 16GIG, 512RAM ( low density)

[jhansman]

Well, I have never had so much trouble with this laptop as I have in the last month (I've owned it over 6 years now). I'm really hoping the new RAM will solve my problems, but frankly, I still don't know how RAM goes 'bad'. If anyone can point me to a resource that explains it, I'd be grateful. I'll post my results here once the swap is done.

[starguy]

I ran into a similar problem a number of years ago when we were switching over the computers in a GIS lab from NT4 to W2k. The install would always hang on a few computers.

The only way I ever got W2k to install on those was to flash the BIOS with a newer version.

Perhaps your BIOS got corrupted.

[jhansman]

It turned out to be the memory. I ran memtest on the two installed modules and errors galore came up. Ordered 2 x 256MB modules as replacements, and so far, so good. There's life in the old girl yet.

I may yet go to the 1.09 BIOS, but I don't want to fix what ain't broke.